For this randomly decided to use 16 ASIC miners, Model: Bitmain antminer S19 Pro which would get us around 110 TH/s, around 3250 Watts needed per miner. So that is around 52,000Wper day.
- Assuming we will use starlink to connect to our mining pools and etc, plus other things to make the satellite stay in space and not become a fancy fireworks, lets set aside 1000W for all of that
Total W needed: 53K W
Power:
According to NASA, the average solar irradiance in space aka solar constant is around 11,360 W/m²
High grade space solar panels has about 30% efficiency
Effective Power Generation per m²: 1,360 W/m² × 30% = 408 W/m²
Calculating our total area needed to power our rigs: 53,000 W ÷ 408 W/m² ≈ 129.9 m²
On average solar panel mass is 1kg per m²
Calculating our mass for solar panel: 129.9 m² × 1 kg/m² = 129.9 kg
Satellite Mass Estimation
ASIC MINER: 13.2 KG per miner X 16 miners =129.9 kg
Solar Panels Mass: 129.9 kg
Estimated mass for other structures, thermal management and power regulation, Starlink comms: 600 kg ( very rough estimate, which is close to SpaceX Starlink satellites )
129.9 kg + 129.9 kg + 600 kg = 941 kg
Launch Cost
SpaceX Rideshare program
Cost per kg: estimated $5,000/KG
Total Launch cost 941 kg satellite at $5,000/kg is $4,705,000
The idea is interesting. As someone else mentioned, heat dissipation will be a major issue. Mining generates a lot of heat, and with no atmosphere, you can’t rely on convection to provide cooling as you would on Earth. I wonder if the moon might be a viable option—you could use the moon as a giant heatsink. But your rig would only be active 50% of the time unless you also provide batteries to keep it running in darkness.
I’m not a space Expert so my comments might be worthless
First off nothing that’s done in space can be done on earth
There is a reason for that it is super Duper expensive to operate in space
Once you get the thing up there, how are you gonna maintain it?
We have lots of land in the south western United States that has lots of sunshine . Granted you have atmospheric dilution of the suns raise, but I don’t think that would make that much difference when you look at the cost of putting something in space.
Rumor has it, the cost to launch anything into space is about to reduce in cost significantly due to deregulation. Aside from the million dollar question of “Is this endeavor economically feasible?” I want to give you a thought to chew on here.
The Unique function of sending Bitcoin Miners & Nodes into Space is that the Security of the bitcoin blockchain (sending money and messages) is Safe from catastrophe/damage that may occur on Earth. I.E. Airstrikes, sabotage, EMF attack, etc.
If you are the only one providing this service, you become a savior and your services are insanely valuable to those who rely on the bitcoin blockchain. The number of people relying on bitcoins blockchain is only growing over time. You better be the first.
Along with that, there is plenty of solar energy in space to keep it all running like a well oiled machine.
Reading your newsletter today it literally struck me how straight-forward and incredibly obvious the idea of orbital BTC mining is. Unfortunately I don't have to offer any valuable expertise, since I am just a humble Bitcoiner and individual investor myself - but my psychological experience from this tells me, when an idea seems so obvious that you can't help but say "why didn't I come up with that earlier myself?" this usually is an infallible sign that you have something big at hand here.
Now how could we push this idea? Who should be in the boat that is well-known for constantly thinking of ways to benefit whole humankind, who has the right mindset and the background as well as means to bring such ideas to life AND will be in charge of the new DOGE dept...? All signs pointing toward Elon here imo. Put that idea in his mind, I bet he'll be happy to talk about it.
Wow, this is exciting ... thanks for sharing this idea! :-)
I love the idea as a Bitcoiner and if it's feasible, who would be better suited to execute on this with lighting speed than Elon? I suspect Trump will LOVE the idea from a nationalist perspective too.
As a relatively small retail miner (40ph) myself I see this as one more reason to be concerned about the future viability of mining at my level. Mining will only continue to move toward the cheapest sources of energy, in addition to being done by nation states.
With the growth in adoption and price and mining being a zero sum game, the economics may drive me to wind my farm down as the machines age out even without this potential technology. The return of 100% depreciation and big tax appetite are 2 economic inputs that could change my perspective however.
Mining in space might worry some of the public miners too.
Lumen Orbit has amazing research regarding mitigating this issue of removing heat generated from data centers in space on their website. I would love to see what research they have done (if any) in regards to the Bitcoin miners heat dilemma . I encourage you to check it out.
IDK any of the engieering, but if the miners are in shaddow behind the solar panels, woudn't the coldness of space (near absolute zero) obviate the need for cooling?
I do have some background in this. I hold a small patent in satellite communications, but I've also I've mined Bitcoin, Ethereum, and even created my own token on the Solana chain. From a technical standpoint, it would work. Communication bandwidth is minimal, and you could add enough redundancy in the chips to mitigate the effects of cosmic rays on the calculations. The issue would be lifecycle. You would need to do some calculations involving the life-cycle of such an array to make sure it would still do valuable (profitable) work after a few more halvings. Instead, I suspect there are other ways to harness wasted heat energy that more more accessible on the ground, including excess heat from factory processes, transportation, etc.
Alex, terrific idea. I have heard rumors that the International Space Station is going to be phased out in the near future. Potentially opening the door for private entities to capitalize on the existing infrastructure that is already in place.
how does one make sure that the farm does not hit the space station? Is there a way to have stable gravity/magnetic pull isolation between the two bodies (station and farm)?
Just don't want to see the Super Star Destroyer Executor crashing into the 2nd death star type of an event happening.
I really appreciate it Drich! I already beat you to the punch though. I have a patent law firm out of WA State that is best in the business taking care of this for me. 😊
1. Latency. Would Starlink be able to process block solutions fast enough to be competitive with Earthbound miners? I'm not a miner but perhaps someone more intelligent could comment.
2. Maintenance. The cost of maintaining the rig needed for this operation impacts its economic feasibility. It would have to be a solid system to minimize any maintenance, and if maintenance is needed, who foots the bill?
That's a fascinating idea! However, it's worth considering the points raised by others in the comments. But...
An interesting question I've pondered myself is: when you can harness solar power, why bother mining Bitcoin? While it's true that Bitcoin monetises stranded energy, it remains fundamentally a digital product, much like unrefined oil is a physical product.
My understanding is that harnessing solar power could enable space travel without the limitations of current energy sources. This could allow us to reach the asteroid belt and mine valuable physical resources that dwarf Bitcoin in value.
It's certainly an ingenious idea, and I admire its creativity. However, I believe it's better suited for terrestrial applications. Some things are best left grounded, rather than launched into space.
I looked into this before…the concern is that the high energy particles rocketing around space will introduce anomalies / faults into the hashing calcs or interfere with the hardware itself.
Finally had time to do this math problem:
Miners:
For this randomly decided to use 16 ASIC miners, Model: Bitmain antminer S19 Pro which would get us around 110 TH/s, around 3250 Watts needed per miner. So that is around 52,000Wper day.
- Assuming we will use starlink to connect to our mining pools and etc, plus other things to make the satellite stay in space and not become a fancy fireworks, lets set aside 1000W for all of that
Total W needed: 53K W
Power:
According to NASA, the average solar irradiance in space aka solar constant is around 11,360 W/m²
High grade space solar panels has about 30% efficiency
Effective Power Generation per m²: 1,360 W/m² × 30% = 408 W/m²
Calculating our total area needed to power our rigs: 53,000 W ÷ 408 W/m² ≈ 129.9 m²
On average solar panel mass is 1kg per m²
Calculating our mass for solar panel: 129.9 m² × 1 kg/m² = 129.9 kg
Satellite Mass Estimation
ASIC MINER: 13.2 KG per miner X 16 miners =129.9 kg
Solar Panels Mass: 129.9 kg
Estimated mass for other structures, thermal management and power regulation, Starlink comms: 600 kg ( very rough estimate, which is close to SpaceX Starlink satellites )
129.9 kg + 129.9 kg + 600 kg = 941 kg
Launch Cost
SpaceX Rideshare program
Cost per kg: estimated $5,000/KG
Total Launch cost 941 kg satellite at $5,000/kg is $4,705,000
BTC Mined per Day (used chatgpt for this part)
Hash rate: 16 miners × 110 TH/s = 1.76 PH/s = 1,760 TH/s
Network Metrics (based on real-time data):
Network Hashrate: 836.81 EH/s (836,810,000 TH/s)
Block Reward: 3.125 BTC
Blocks per Day: 144
More math. Shared network hashrate calc
1,760TH / 836,810,000 TH/s = 0.000002103(0.0002103%)
Daily BTC Mined per day
450BTC/day×0.000002103=0.00094635BTC/day
now w/pool fees assuming its at 2%
0.00094635BTC/day×(1−0.02)=0.00092742BTC/day
With BTC at 100K
0.00092742BTC/day×100,000$/BTC= $92.742/day
Rough estimate cost of $4.7 mill, without labor and miners bought. Or solar panel.
Profit per day $92.7 which is around 34k a year profit.
Other factors to consider: thermal management, structural integrity, data transmission, gov regulations and maintenance
What if instead if sending our own satellite, what if we just attached miners to the ISS or something, help NASA do NASA things since space is cool.
Anyways follow me ya nerds
https://x.com/ABwasabi
Reference:
https://www.coinwarz.com/mining/bitcoin/calculator
https://www.spacex.com/rideshare/
https://www.solar.com/learn/space-based-solar-vs-conventional-solar-how-are-they-different/#:~:text=The%20silicon%20cells%20that%20are,in%20the%20International%20Space%20Station.
https://www.kompulsa.com/bitcoin-miner-power-consumption-much-energy-bitcoin-miners-consume/#:~:text=Antminer%20S19%20Power%20Consumption%20%E2%80%93%20Energy,Terahash%20at%20the%20same%20temperature.
https://www.alternative-energy-tutorials.com/solar-power/solar-irradiance.html#:~:text=According%20to%20NASA%2C%20the%20average,(that%20is%201.37%20kilowatts).
The idea is interesting. As someone else mentioned, heat dissipation will be a major issue. Mining generates a lot of heat, and with no atmosphere, you can’t rely on convection to provide cooling as you would on Earth. I wonder if the moon might be a viable option—you could use the moon as a giant heatsink. But your rig would only be active 50% of the time unless you also provide batteries to keep it running in darkness.
I’m not a space Expert so my comments might be worthless
First off nothing that’s done in space can be done on earth
There is a reason for that it is super Duper expensive to operate in space
Once you get the thing up there, how are you gonna maintain it?
We have lots of land in the south western United States that has lots of sunshine . Granted you have atmospheric dilution of the suns raise, but I don’t think that would make that much difference when you look at the cost of putting something in space.
Rumor has it, the cost to launch anything into space is about to reduce in cost significantly due to deregulation. Aside from the million dollar question of “Is this endeavor economically feasible?” I want to give you a thought to chew on here.
The Unique function of sending Bitcoin Miners & Nodes into Space is that the Security of the bitcoin blockchain (sending money and messages) is Safe from catastrophe/damage that may occur on Earth. I.E. Airstrikes, sabotage, EMF attack, etc.
If you are the only one providing this service, you become a savior and your services are insanely valuable to those who rely on the bitcoin blockchain. The number of people relying on bitcoins blockchain is only growing over time. You better be the first.
Along with that, there is plenty of solar energy in space to keep it all running like a well oiled machine.
Reading your newsletter today it literally struck me how straight-forward and incredibly obvious the idea of orbital BTC mining is. Unfortunately I don't have to offer any valuable expertise, since I am just a humble Bitcoiner and individual investor myself - but my psychological experience from this tells me, when an idea seems so obvious that you can't help but say "why didn't I come up with that earlier myself?" this usually is an infallible sign that you have something big at hand here.
Now how could we push this idea? Who should be in the boat that is well-known for constantly thinking of ways to benefit whole humankind, who has the right mindset and the background as well as means to bring such ideas to life AND will be in charge of the new DOGE dept...? All signs pointing toward Elon here imo. Put that idea in his mind, I bet he'll be happy to talk about it.
Wow, this is exciting ... thanks for sharing this idea! :-)
Thanks for your feedback! 🧡
I love the idea as a Bitcoiner and if it's feasible, who would be better suited to execute on this with lighting speed than Elon? I suspect Trump will LOVE the idea from a nationalist perspective too.
As a relatively small retail miner (40ph) myself I see this as one more reason to be concerned about the future viability of mining at my level. Mining will only continue to move toward the cheapest sources of energy, in addition to being done by nation states.
With the growth in adoption and price and mining being a zero sum game, the economics may drive me to wind my farm down as the machines age out even without this potential technology. The return of 100% depreciation and big tax appetite are 2 economic inputs that could change my perspective however.
Mining in space might worry some of the public miners too.
A major issue with spacecraft is cooling, and bitcoin miners generate a lot of heat. That would be the number one hurdle that needs to be overcome.
Lumen Orbit has amazing research regarding mitigating this issue of removing heat generated from data centers in space on their website. I would love to see what research they have done (if any) in regards to the Bitcoin miners heat dilemma . I encourage you to check it out.
IDK any of the engieering, but if the miners are in shaddow behind the solar panels, woudn't the coldness of space (near absolute zero) obviate the need for cooling?
Space is a vacuum, so there is no air to conduct the heat away. You have to radiate excess heat away as infrared radiation.
I do have some background in this. I hold a small patent in satellite communications, but I've also I've mined Bitcoin, Ethereum, and even created my own token on the Solana chain. From a technical standpoint, it would work. Communication bandwidth is minimal, and you could add enough redundancy in the chips to mitigate the effects of cosmic rays on the calculations. The issue would be lifecycle. You would need to do some calculations involving the life-cycle of such an array to make sure it would still do valuable (profitable) work after a few more halvings. Instead, I suspect there are other ways to harness wasted heat energy that more more accessible on the ground, including excess heat from factory processes, transportation, etc.
I would suggest attaching the farm to Intl Spacestation. This way it will be easy to upgrade equipment and to have a team managing mining.
Alex, terrific idea. I have heard rumors that the International Space Station is going to be phased out in the near future. Potentially opening the door for private entities to capitalize on the existing infrastructure that is already in place.
how does one make sure that the farm does not hit the space station? Is there a way to have stable gravity/magnetic pull isolation between the two bodies (station and farm)?
Just don't want to see the Super Star Destroyer Executor crashing into the 2nd death star type of an event happening.
I work for a patent law firm that can patent this idea if you guys wanted to go that route!
I really appreciate it Drich! I already beat you to the punch though. I have a patent law firm out of WA State that is best in the business taking care of this for me. 😊
That’s funny we are out of WA too! Haha but we are a nation wide firm as well.
Great idea. Never thought of this honestly. Going to see if I can do the math on cost vs revenue
Thanks AB!
This is a big idea. I like it.
2 immediate concerns come up for me:
1. Latency. Would Starlink be able to process block solutions fast enough to be competitive with Earthbound miners? I'm not a miner but perhaps someone more intelligent could comment.
2. Maintenance. The cost of maintaining the rig needed for this operation impacts its economic feasibility. It would have to be a solid system to minimize any maintenance, and if maintenance is needed, who foots the bill?
Daniel Suarez explores this in some detail in his book "Critical Mass".
What will the network latency be for the in orbit miners?
Miners need fairly low latency when constructing blocks, and also good throughput to stay in sync with the network.
Admittedly, latency and throughput aren't massive issues with BTC due to block size constraints.
That's a fascinating idea! However, it's worth considering the points raised by others in the comments. But...
An interesting question I've pondered myself is: when you can harness solar power, why bother mining Bitcoin? While it's true that Bitcoin monetises stranded energy, it remains fundamentally a digital product, much like unrefined oil is a physical product.
My understanding is that harnessing solar power could enable space travel without the limitations of current energy sources. This could allow us to reach the asteroid belt and mine valuable physical resources that dwarf Bitcoin in value.
It's certainly an ingenious idea, and I admire its creativity. However, I believe it's better suited for terrestrial applications. Some things are best left grounded, rather than launched into space.
I looked into this before…the concern is that the high energy particles rocketing around space will introduce anomalies / faults into the hashing calcs or interfere with the hardware itself.